Stuffed Pears En Croute

Preheat oven to 300ºF.

Wash and dry pears. With a sharp knife, cut a hole in the top of the pear down toward core and remove as much of the core and seeds as possible without cutting through the bottom. Cut the core away from the top of the pear so that it will sit comfortably back on top of the pear.

Stuff each pear with 1 ounce of cheese (or as much as you can get inside and still put the top back on).

Cut puff pastry into 1/2-inch strips. Beginning at the bottom, wrap pears with pastry strips until you reach the top. Press lightly to join the strips to one another. Beat egg and tablespoon of water and brush a light coat over the outside of the pastry.

Place on baking pan lined with Silpat liner. If making honey candy to crumble on top or be eaten with the pear, pour 1 teaspoon rounds near the center of the Silpat liner. You’ll use approximately 3 teaspoons for each pear.

Bake pears for 30 minutes at 300ºF. Remove and drizzle 3 tablespoons over the top of each pear, raise the temperature to 350ºF and return to the oven to bake for another 15-20 minutes depending on how hard your pears were to begin with and how soft you want the end result to be.

Remove from oven, let cool. Break honey candy in bits, sprinkle on pears and drizzle with a little extra honey if desired.